COMMUNITY KITCHENS

Recently, FoodShare Toronto has been operating a number of community kitchens with various partner organizations.

In conjunction with the Aboriginal Education Centre of the TDSB, FoodShare has facilitated a number of community kitchens with First Nations families in a public school setting. Family members cook together while students enjoy a variety of related activities. Everyone sits down to a healthy, delicious meal featuring some traditional native dishes along with signature FoodShare recipes. The kitchens promote healthy cooking techniques combined with the joy of sharing a communal meal. These community kitchens proved to be a wonderful way to promote healthy eating and build a strong sense of community.

FoodShare has worked with a number of local organizations including Culture Link, Abrigo and The Afri-Can Food Basket to run community kitchens with groups of young people. Teenagers come together with FoodShare chefs to create healthy, simple meals that are geared to a young person on a budget. Cooking together with their peers in a relaxed environment is a first step towards understanding how to feed yourself in a fast food world.

Kate's Kitchen is FoodShare's longest running community kitchen. Every month, breast cancer survivors along with women receiving on-going cancer treatment get together with nutritionists and chefs to explore healthful eating. The group explores diets that help sustain patients who are undergoing treatment as well as recipes that help maintain good health once treatment is over. As in all our experience with Community Kitchens, the sense of community and support this group affords participants is often as helpful as the food itself.

Contact foodlink@foodshare.net to find an existing community kitchen near you in Toronto.

For key community kitchen resources check out the Learning Centre- Resource Library.

For more information on FoodShare's cooking training programs, contact Alvin Rebick 416 583 5416 or email alvin@foodshare.net